Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Video Cards
Nearly all new video cards have multiple output for multi-monitor display. This
is usually in one DVI or HDMI (digital) and one VGA (analog) flavor. If you are
purchasing a video card with a DVI port and you are not running a digital LCD
monitor, then you will need a DVI to VGA converter/adapter. Most DVI capable
LCD monitors will have the capability of running VGA (analog), so you will not
need to worry about VGA to DVI adapters (they are in the hundreds of dollars).
Another concern is the size of the on-board video memory and graphics processor. Memory on the video card is important to traders and yet isn’t important to traders at the same time. Video cards with more than 1GB WILL NOT help populate your charts faster or give you an advantage, nor will having the latest gaming video card.
The processor on the video card isn’t as important for traders as you may think. If the video card has multi-monitor support, chances are that the GPU is good enough. The most important aspect of the video card is compliance and reliability. Just because it will fit into a slot in your motherboard does not mean it will be reliable or work the way you want. There are hardware and software conflicts that can arise, which makes the video card selecting process very tedious. A general rule of thumb to guide you is to stay within nVidia or AMD Radeon chipset. NEVER mix the two as that is a recipe for disaster. Also try to stay with the same manufacturer if you decide to take the “do it yourself” approach.
return to the top
Another concern is the size of the on-board video memory and graphics processor. Memory on the video card is important to traders and yet isn’t important to traders at the same time. Video cards with more than 1GB WILL NOT help populate your charts faster or give you an advantage, nor will having the latest gaming video card.
The processor on the video card isn’t as important for traders as you may think. If the video card has multi-monitor support, chances are that the GPU is good enough. The most important aspect of the video card is compliance and reliability. Just because it will fit into a slot in your motherboard does not mean it will be reliable or work the way you want. There are hardware and software conflicts that can arise, which makes the video card selecting process very tedious. A general rule of thumb to guide you is to stay within nVidia or AMD Radeon chipset. NEVER mix the two as that is a recipe for disaster. Also try to stay with the same manufacturer if you decide to take the “do it yourself” approach.